Indiana Mobile Home Park Lease Law: What Operators Need to Include

What must a mobile home lot lease include in Indiana?

Here is the honest answer: Indiana has no comprehensive mobile-home-park lease statute that dictates what a lot lease must contain. There is no state-mandated lot-lease bill of rights, no statutory minimum term, and no manufactured-housing-specific list of required disclosures. If you are looking for a checklist handed down by the legislature the way some states provide, Indiana does not have one.

Indiana did briefly have a dedicated act. A 2004 chapter titled Mobile Home Rental Agreements, formerly at IC 32-31-9, set some lot-lease-specific rules. It was repealed, and that same code number now holds an unrelated chapter, Rights of Tenants Who Are Victims of Certain Crimes, which applies only to agreements entered into or renewed after June 30, 2007. Be careful citing IC 32-31-9 today: it no longer has anything to do with mobile homes.

So a lot lease today is governed by Indiana's general residential landlord-tenant statutes (IC 32-31-3 and IC 32-31-8) plus the mobile-home-community health and licensing chapter, IC 16-41-27. In practice this means the written lease itself is the primary source of the parties' rights, because most park-specific protections in Indiana are contractual rather than statutory.

General landlord-tenant duties and disclosures that still apply

Manager and agent disclosure is the clearest statutory lease duty that reaches a lot lease. Under IC 32-31-3-18, the landlord must disclose in writing, at or before the start of the rental agreement, the name and address of an Indiana person authorized to manage the unit and an Indiana person authorized to accept service of process and legal notices. Skip it and you become the default agent for service, and the tenant can recover the cost of tracking that information down.

Habitability and maintenance duties apply. IC 32-31-8-5 requires the landlord to deliver the premises safe, clean, and habitable, comply with applicable health and housing codes, keep common areas in proper condition, and maintain supplied electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, and cooling systems and appliances in good working order. In a park setting these duties typically run to roads, water and sewer, and shared facilities. Under IC 32-31-8-4, any attempt to waive this chapter in the lease is void.

Security deposits are regulated. Under IC 32-31-3-12, after the agreement ends and the tenant returns possession, you must return the deposit or deliver an itemized written notice of deductions within 45 days, or you risk owing the full deposit plus attorney's fees.

One honest caveat: these statutes are written around a dwelling unit and rental premises, so their application to a bare lot, where the resident owns the home, is not spelled out in the code. Indiana Legal Services nonetheless treats lot leases as governed by this general landlord-tenant law. Note too that Indiana provides no rent-escrow or rent-withholding remedy, so disputes are resolved differently than in many states.

The mobile-home-community licensing and health regime (IC 16-41-27)

IC 16-41-27 is a health, sanitation, safety, and licensing chapter administered through the Indiana Department of Health and local health departments. It sets community standards and permitting requirements. It is not a lease-content law and does not tell you what to put in a lease.

One provision operators should know is IC 16-41-27-32, which preempts local age and size discrimination against manufactured homes: a governmental body may not regulate or restrict the installation, continued residential use, or occupancy of a mobile home based on its age or size, and conflicting local rules are void. This protects the homes in your community from many local ordinances, but it is about land-use regulation, not lease terms.

Practical takeaway: treat ISDH community licensing and sanitation compliance as a separate obligation from the lease. Passing a health inspection does not satisfy your landlord-tenant duties, and a well-drafted lease does not substitute for keeping the community properly licensed and maintained.

Contractual versus statutory protections: what this means for your lease

Because the dedicated mobile-home act was repealed, most of the protections residents receive in other states, such as a lot-lease bill of rights, mandatory renewal terms, itemized service lists, resale and relocation rules, entry limits, and park-closure notice, are not guaranteed by Indiana statute. If you want those rules to govern your community, they have to appear in the written lease and park rules.

That cuts both ways. It gives operators flexibility, but it also means ambiguous or missing lease terms fall back on general contract and landlord-tenant principles, and courts may read gaps against the party that drafted the lease. A thorough, plain-English lease and rule set is your single best risk control.

Keep the lease consistent with the statutes that do apply. Make the IC 32-31-3-18 manager and agent disclosure, honor the IC 32-31-8 habitability duties (which cannot be waived), and follow the IC 32-31-3 deposit-return timeline. Do not include clauses that purport to waive those obligations, because they will not hold up.

Lease requirements at a glance in Indiana

• No comprehensive MHP lease statute
  Indiana has no manufactured-housing-community lease-content act; the 2004 chapter formerly at IC 32-31-9 was repealed, so the general landlord-tenant statutes govern.
• Manager and agent disclosure (IC 32-31-3-18)
  Disclose in writing, at or before signing, the name and address of an in-state manager and an in-state agent authorized to receive legal notices and service of process.
• Habitability duties (IC 32-31-8-5)
  Deliver and maintain the premises safe, clean, and habitable, meet health and housing codes, and keep common areas and supplied systems working; waiver is void (IC 32-31-8-4).
• Security deposit return (IC 32-31-3-12)
  Return the deposit, or deliver an itemized written notice of deductions, within 45 days of termination and return of possession, or owe the full deposit plus attorney's fees.
• Health and licensing are separate (IC 16-41-27)
  Community sanitation, safety, and licensing run through the Indiana Department of Health, independent of lease terms; local age or size bans on homes are preempted.
• Most protections are contractual
  Renewal, services, resale and relocation, entry, and park-closure notice are governed by the written lease and park rules, not by any dedicated statute.

Operator best practices in Indiana

• Build a relationship with an Indiana MHP attorney
  Because the dedicated statute was repealed, gaps get filled by case law and general landlord-tenant rules; have counsel draft and periodically review your lot lease and park rules.
• Put every protection in writing
  Spell out term, lot rent, included services, utilities, resale and relocation, entry, and community rules in the lease; do not rely on statute to supply missing terms.
• Make the IC 32-31-3-18 disclosure at signing
  Name an Indiana manager and an Indiana agent for service of process in the lease so you do not become the default agent by omission.
• Honor the non-waivable duties
  Keep the IC 32-31-8 habitability obligations and the 45-day deposit-return duty under IC 32-31-3-12; strike any waiver clauses, which are void by statute.
• Keep health-licensing compliance separate
  Maintain Indiana Department of Health community licensing and sanitation standards under IC 16-41-27 as a standalone obligation, documented apart from the lease.
• Verify current code text before relying on it
  Confirm each section on iga.in.gov every renewal cycle; Indiana reused code numbers (IC 32-31-9), so cite carefully and never assume a repealed provision still applies.